Totally off topic but I wondered what the feeling (if any) down south is about Rangers and Celtic wanting to join the Nationwide league? The other 10 of our top 12 teams up here have just resigned from the league to protest against their attempted hijacking of Scottish football.

Gary - Old Firm Get Tae f***? Too right! Leaves the top spot for the Glorious Dons with Hibees a distant 2nd ha ha.

Personally, I reckon if Rangers & Celtic were to join the Premiership, they would probably both end up as mid-table sides at best.

Its piss easy to win the SPL, because no other Scottish sides can match the financial power of the big 2. They have decent players like Larsson and De Boer, but they aren't exactly teams full of world class players.

However look at thier performances in Europe and you have to question thier ability to make it at top level premiership football, The likes of Man Utd, Arsenal & Liverpool would probably make Celtic look like an average side. (Even Newcastle would probably beat them, even if thier title challenge is already a long distant memory - your'e not singing any more Mr Arnold)

So in short, no I think they should stick to playing in the SPL, however that seems pointless too as they just win that year after year. Maybe we should stick em in Division for a season and see how they fare there.

I wouldn't mind giving Celtic & Rangers a chance in England, as long as the fans leave their religious beliefs at home. I think Geordies would prefer a trip to Glasgow instead of London... Question is if the likes of SKY would still bother with showing Scottish footie, so where would the clubs get income from? I don't think the Western Europe league thing would work either (teams from Scotland, Holland, Portugal etc in their own little champions league).
P.S. I'm ignoring those negative remarks about Newcastle, but if it happens again, those members will be banned

The revenue created by TV and sponsorship in Scotland is minimal compared to that of the English Nationwide div 1. Sky were only offering us £48 million over 3 years between 12 clubs compared to the hundreds of millions to the Premiership. This being the case I suspect that both the Old Firm could thrive in England. I have a feeling that the sheer size of the club is not well understood outside of Scotland. Certainly Celtic sell out 60000+ every week and could sell much more. Only Man U have a bigger support and I believe there are only about 3 other clubs in Europe with bigger!

Markus

Do you really want to go to Glasgow? It makes Newcastle look like Monte Carlo (no offence Newcastle, Glasgow and especially dmp). More to the point do you really want Glaswegian supporters rampaging around England? You have no idea, seriously.

From an Aberdeen fan's point of view, please take them. They are big fish in a little pond and could do with being taken down a further peg or two. Unfortunately I think we will be forced to keep them.

How can you possibly suggest that Celtic would finish mid-table in the Premiership? We have already beaten Juventus, Porto and Rosenborg (not to mention Man Utd. 3-2 at Old Trafford, Beckham, Veron et al.) We only lost to Valencia on Penalties due to being up against Santi Canizares, one of the world's best goalkeepers. And to suggest that Henrik Larsson is our only good player is ridiculous. Paul Lambert, for example, has a European Cup winners medal. Stilian Petrov, Didier Agathe etc. are all good players.

PS- "Glasgow makes Newcastle look like Monte Carlo"??? Have you never been? What about Buchanan Street, Gallery of Modern Art, the Science Centre or the Armadillo. Beats the Metro Centre anyday. We also had (and shortly will have soon when it's re-done after the fire) the world's best club - The Sub Club.

Sorry to offend dmp. Have to say Glasgow has great clubs some good looking areas galleries and shops (used to shop thru west before the wee man) but be honest most fans wouldn't go to to the Burrell Collection would they. They would be visiting Ibrox or Parkhead (used to be thru regularly following the Dons) where the closest you get to art is FTP or IRA spraypainted on the walls and casual clothes means a Burberry baseball cap. CP was always the preferance where I come from.

Don't think England would be ready for the OF baggage and they certainly wouldn't get the Milk Lemonade Chocolate. No-one outside strathclyde does.

I didn't mean to offend any Celtic/Rangers fans, I just merely suggested they might struggle in the premiership. That said, with increased revenue they may well do better than I would have expected.

I think Larsson is one of the best strikers in Europe, but I don't think the rest of the team are world class players, sure they may be GOOD players, but the likes of Middlesbrough, Aston Villa and Tottenham have good players and they aren't exactly major forces in the premiership.

Van Nistelrooy, Keane, Henry, Viera, Owen & Gerrard are what I would call world class players. I would be all for the premiership to be more exciting and I just don't think that adding Celtic & Rangers would do that, not for a few years anyway.

I take your points, but what you have to remember is that Celtic (and Rangers) operate in the SPL with poor TV money. If we had the same money as say, Middlesborough, Sunderland or Ipswich from TV rights, we'd have a head start on everyone but Man Utd. 60,000 people watch Celtic every week, myself included. We have 50,000 season ticket holders, and a potential world-wide TV audience in the US, Australia and the Far East. No other club in the UK can boast that except Man Utd! The immediate increase in revenue would allows us to expand our squad with better players, making us able to challenge for the league title.

Also, RE bigotry etc. - I acknowledge this is the unacceptable face of the Old Firm, but it is blown out of proportion by the Scottish Media on a regular basis. And it's not just at Ibrox we have to put up with Anti-Catholic sentiment, either! The same thing happens in Dundee, Edinburgh (Hearts), etc, so it's unfair to tarnish only the Old Firm with the bigotry brush. English fans seem to accept the old firm for their football attributes, rather than what their religion is. Anyway, this is all getting a bit too serious and political for my liking so I think I'll away and listen to Pacific. Cheers

JD what aboot this weegie talkin oot his a**e. If Glasgow is so good then how come it is one of the only places in the world where you can find anorexic dogs roamin the streets and bairns eatin dug food! Never met a Hibbee yet who gives a flyin f*** aboot some old gallery!

Look RANGERS and CELTIC (they are the OLDEST SCOTTISH football teams right???) should be trying their damned best to make sure that they stay IN Scotland and trying to see a way to HELP other Scottish clubs along a route that leads to helping Scottish football generally and NOT thinking that by f***ing off down south will do them or football any good! I believe that if you are the chief of your clan then you should lead by EXAMPLE, something which these two sets of VERY bigoted bunch of weegie slappers seem to have somehow forgot!!!

And another thing...every country has it's top 2-3 fav's for winning the titile every season so what makes Celtic or Rangers think that they are any different??? Stoppin the tv deals is a piece of BIGGOTRY if ever I've seen one!!!

On a lighter note, just got me Ajax season ticket for next year.....JD, might see ye in the Champions Leauge??? HAHA!!

In case you guys didn't know, I am a programmer for Sports Interactive - makers of the Championship Manager series of PC (and now XBox) games.
We just started off a Premiership League Simulation with Rangers and Celtic in there.
I can't deliberate the results so far, cos they're going to be posted in a Scottish newspaper this weekend.
I'll post a full report next week to the 808'ers though